Grimmas

My #94 in 2016, and based on my notes it was favouritism. Boss Man has a case to legit make the list, so that sounds silly now. What great punches he has! One thing I find amazing about him, is how he uses his size. As a heel he can look like a monster, beating people down. As a babyface he can look tiny, working from underneath. His career is littered with change too, from a bad ass monster, to a underdog underneath fighter, to a gate keeper, to a top star babyface, to a henchman, to a underneath hardcore worker and comedy guy. A very impressive arc. He's ALWAYS in the right place too and makes everyone he works look better. Plus had a better series of matches with Vader than Sting did.

1 Akira Hokuto 2 Bull Nakano

My #1 in 2016 and currently sits as my #1 man on the list and I don't see how that can't last. One of the best wrestlers ever at mixing in comedy, but not having comedy matches. You can throw on any Terry Funk match and, at the very least, it will be entertaining. The longevity is there, and wildly we have very very little of their actual prime. Has the ability to be an amazing heel or babyface, work tags or singles, work brawls or regular matches, work undercard or main events. The charisma jumps off the page with them in the ring too.

I think Kid/Lynn is more Kidd/TM, but a step further is all Benoit. Basically the 2000s indies and on. Look at the WON voting and Benoit was basically the perfect wrestler to that whole crowd. Yeah, he wouldn't had been that without Dynamite. That's very true. I wonder who influenced Dynamite then? Who can we blame for this style fully? To clarify, no chance of me voting for Benoit. I was over him by 05 and that was before the moral issues with voting for him.

I've seen one Meiko match and it was a little too much finisher spamming for me, but that's just one match in the series! If anything is better than the Nakano series, than Kong will be jumping into my top 10.

Very fair you could take it back a step too and include Dynamite. Although, if nobody else really copied Dynamite like Benoit did, that influenced way more people. This is a knock against Dynamite too.

That one rules so hard, plus another great piece of evidence for the greatness of Hokuto pre 93. The mist is amazing and it's such a classic structure. One of the rare matches that made me try to figure out how gifs worked.

Thanks for justifying your statement, I do appreciate it. I'm at 1992, so i can't comment. She ruled in the 80s up until her retirement, so I guess I'll get back to you on this in a few years.

I am not sure what you mean here. Lioness has had so many great matches, performances. Worst at anything seems like a bizarre statement. If you are implying of the great wrestlers, she's at the lower tier of them. Then okay? I guess.

A top 5 match of all time for me. Great description. Is there anything better in wrestling history than Andre putting on a Stan Hansen elbow pad to deliver a lariat?

In highschool when we would backyard wrestle, or just wrestle in the living room while watching the WWF PPVs, I would basically just do armbars as a tribute to Kashin. That's the only real comment I have about Kashin.

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Elliott said: "Epic brawler with a knack working psychological masterpieces. On the short list of most interesting characters in wrestling history and the definition of the wrestler you want to see vs anybody. Ken the Box vs Brock Lesnar? Ken the Box vs Lou Thesz? Ken the Box vs Jaguar Yokota? Ken the Box vs Sabu? Ken the Box vs Shinya Hashimoto? Ken the Box vs Abdullah the Butcher? Ken the Box vs Kenta Kobashi (Battle of the Kens!)? These are all guarateed 5 star matches. I challenge anyone to come up with an opponent for Ken the Box that wouldn't be a 5 star match. He's the only wrestler in history you could say that about. Ken the Box is the ultimate cheat code. He solved pro-wrestling. "

Jetlag said: "Gee, how is Harley Motherfucking Saito not nominated? I would comfortably rank her as the best worker of the original JWP promotion. A badass shooter who was a fantastic sympathetic face. Her 1991 alone smokes a lot of well respected workers best years. She also had some banging matches in the interpromotional era. I've yet to dive into her LLPW work, so that is something to look forward too."

KetamineEnjoyer said: "Kane may not be a wrestler with a huge amount of great matches to his name, at least not singles matches, but in terms of being able to run with a gimmick and create some of the most memorable segments of all time, I would argue that Kane is the best guy ever in that regard. Arguably his most impressive feat is being one half of the best comedy stuff WWE has ever done, in the form of Team Hell No in the early 2010s, a feat made even more impressive by the fact that it took place in the PG era, where their comedy misses far more often than it hits. Along with this, Kane has some of the best "moments" in wrestling history, mainly his debut at the climax of the Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels cell match. I wouldn't say Kane is truly up there with my all time favourites, but he's definitely in the conversation."

soup23 said: "I had him at #99 on my 2021 updated list which was a personal pick but he has been the biggest revelation of the 2000s so far. I think people generally see him as the other guy in that great Minoru Tanaka match and in general view Osaka Pro in the wrong lens as mostly a goofy comedy promotion. His rookie year in 2000 is one of the all time great rookie years of any wrestler and it started with match 1 vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa on 1/4/00. He is continuing to bring the goods in 2001 and by the time this list is made in 2026, I should have most of his career chronicled match by match. He is able to blend in being an ass kicker but also sympathetic from underneath. A wonderful worker. "

Reel said: "Fujiii really only has a case for a 100 vote, so this nomination might purely be for me to put her there on my ballot, but here's her case. She has 3 matches, and I'm not sure I'd call any of them great, you could make the argument for the Yoshida match, but in all of them, she looks incredible. Everything is slick, everything is crisp, and she looks like an absolute killer. She would go on to be one the best fighters in women's MMA, but all of these matches take place before the bulk of her run in that sport. Considering her at all is going to be a stretch, but she has a sort of extreme version of Volk Han's case, very few matches, but each one has something special."

Kadaveri said: "I need to rewatch a lot of Shimmer and Shine before I make a more developed push for her, but from memory she's my favourite of all the female indie workers of that era. She's such a stand out because she's 6ft 1 and muscular so can credibly fight like an offensive juggernaut. She's like the best version of a Charlotte Flair. Plus she's a lot better on the mat and as a character. She's a great in-match shit-talker and is as good as anyone on those shows at working up crowds during their matches. If anyone's including influence she's also one of the most important wrestlers almost nobody's ever heard of when you look at all the women she trained/mentored who went on to become something bigger."

GOTNW said: "The alleged „worst IWGP champion in history“, Yasuda is another wrestler I was supposed to dislike but then I actually watched his matches and it turned out he was quite good. Coward shooter is one of the more unique gimmicks you're gonna find in wrestling, but even before then he knew how to use his strong points like clinching and sumo offence to create meaningful focal points around which to build matches."

GOTNW said: "Kashin is just a troll“. „He sucks“. „He was booed at an ROH show in 2004 once“. This is what I learned growing up reading through the archives of the prowres interwebs. Actually watching the footage, you see he has a cool mask and a catchy theme song. Ok, a good start. Then I watched him tap out Masayuki Naruse in half a minute with a Flying Armbar. I like Flying Armbars. I kept watching his stuff, I kept enjoying it, and by the time I saw him carry clueless Yuma Aoyagi to a really fun match I could safely conclude conventional e-wisdom was wrong and Kendo Kashin does in fact rule. He really is a troll though, but it's part of the charm."

GOTNW said: "Kintaro Oki's fellow Korean tag team partner is someone whom I'd never heard get hyped, but almost instantly impressed me. From what I've seen he works as a very capable worker laying his stuff in nicely, with him and Oki basically inventing W.A.R. wrestling by working these hateful chaotic brawls. If you want a summary of what he's about, there's a 4 minute clip of him wrestling Wahoo McDaniel where he absolutely goes toe to toe with him."

Jetlag said: "Another guy who massively benefited from the French footage becoming available. The man looked world class from his first appearances in the 60s up to his last in the 80s and virtually always had an outstanding match. Amazing technico, but also amazing rudo. Looks great both doing high end technical work as well stooging for faces and being a rough playing bastard. Has both great singles matches and great tags under his belt. One of those French guys whose matches you can show to anyone and their jaw will drop."

Saturday, May 1st we will be watching Virus! Saturday, May 8th, we will be watching Yuki Ishikawa! Join us, these are a blast.

I had her #24 in 2016 and what a fucking mistake. She's my #1 right now and I still have 93-94 to watch more thoroughly. I don't know what it will take to take her out that spot. I just can't get over how much she gets out of every second of the match, from working the apron, to her selling, to her submissions, to each move she does.